Legendary actor Sir Ian McKellen has gone on the record to confirm that he’s heard that Gandalf will be in Andy Serkis and Peter Jackson’s next Lord of the Rings movie, The Hunt for Gollum.

While talking to The Times about playing Falstaff

McKellen talked about “stirrings in Tolkien land” that he’s been hearing since the recent announcement of the project.

McKellen famously played Gandalf the Grey/White in both Jackson’s original Lord the Rings trilogy and then again in its follow-up prequel trilogy, The Hobbit.

Although The Hunt for Gollum is a prequel to the Fellowship of the Ring, McKellen has been no stranger to appearing in additional prequels as aforementioned – he returned for The Hobbit trilogy a decade later.

He has in the past joked about looking more right for the part as he ages, since Tolkien’s beloved Istari member is thousands of years old.

While talking in the aforementioned interview with The Times, McKellen revealed that he himself has ‘heard’ that Gandalf is planned to be featured in the upcoming Hunt for Gollum movie.

This would work well with recent fan theories that both Gandalf and Aragorn will be in the movie alongside Serkis who returns as the iconic live-action Smeagol/Gollum as well as director this time around.

Although he’s ‘heard’ Gandalf will be in the movie, he says he has yet to see an actual “script”.

“There is no script, there is no offer, there is no plan,” McKellen told the outlet.

As to if he would consider the role, he teased with a smile that as long as he’s “alive”, he’ll be up for it.

“If I’m alive.”